In 2015 seven Asian countries were represented in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program at three different levels with Japan, Korea, China, DPR Korea, Hong Kong, the United Arab Ermirates and Chinese Taipei.

The IIHF Ice Hockey Challenge Cup of Asia gives Asian countries that are not in the World Championship program, or that play in the lowest division, a chance to compete. It shall also help develop hockey in Asia and help rank the Asian teams in view of the seeding for the Asian Winter Games.

The first edition of the event was held in 2008 with six teams in Hong Kong, followed by the eight-team event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2009. The year after a nine teams participated in the event in Chinese Taipei. 2012 marked the first ever event held in India, in the city of Dehradun.

In 2013 a record number of ten teams came to Bangkok in the first IIHF tournament ever held in Thailand and the same number of nations will participated in 2014. Oman joined the competition in 2015 and Qatar in 2016 to grow the number of active Asian nations to 18.